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Super sweet shower jelly

Although I've managed to conquer my obsession with Lush, I still have a whole lot of their products stored away from various shopping sprees. One of my favourite Lush items is their shower jelly, as it is a unique product and has a novelty fun factor to it. This Sweetie Pie shower jelly is available to buy from the Lush high street stores, via mail order, or online at www.lush.co.uk. It costs £3.25 for a 100g tub or £6.45 for a 240g tub.

Product description: "A shower jelly with cherries, coconut and sparkles for bathtime fun. Even if it's not your birthday, treat yourself to a bit of fun with this jelly baby. Its sweet and sparkliness is the perfect way to cheer yourself up, or to encourage reluctant little ones to enjoy bathtime."

Shower jelly is a completely different cleansing product to your ordinary body wash or shower gel. It looks as the name suggests, like a big block of wobbly jelly! It has a firm but squishy texture which can get a bit slippy when it's wet. One feature of the shower jelly is that its consistency is very resistant. It comes in a plastic container to protect it from getting wet which would cause it to deteriorate. You can keep the tub of jelly in your bathroom so it stays at room temperature, or you can put it in the fridge - or even the freezer! - to make it chilled and give you a refreshing wake up call with your morning shower. Keeping it stored in the fridge does seem to help it last a bit longer as the texture stays more solid and the jelly melts less readily when you are using it on your body, so less is needed each time you use it. I prefer to keep my jelly at a warmer temperature though, as I hate the cold feeling of it against my skin when I'm in a nice warm shower or bath. This also makes it a bit softer so it is easier to lather up when you're ready to use it.

The Sweetie Pie shower jelly looks lovely as it has a deep purple colour and is packed full of sparkly bits of glitter. I particularly love this shower jelly as the smell of it is incredible. The fragrance is very rich and has a fruity berry scent to it, with a nice sharp hit of sweetness to make it really come alive. It reminds me of some of Lush's other products like The Comforter bubble bar and You Snap The Whip body butter bar.

There are several ways that you can use the shower jelly. You can rub the block directly onto your skin, but I find that this is fairly ineffective as it does not create much of a lather and the jelly becomes too wet, making it slippery and difficult to hold on to and I invariably end up dropping bits and losing them in the bath. I prefer to use this with a bath puff, breaking off a small section of the jelly by tearing it with my fingers, then rubbing it into the bath puff before washing. This helps the jelly to break down properly and creates a nice foamy effect which feels really soft and smoothes over the skin nicely. Unfortunately the glitter included in this shower jelly seems to be there purely for a fun visual effect as it has no staying power and does not stick on the skin.

Lush reckon that you can also use this to clean your hair in place of an ordinary shampoo, but I'm not so convinced. I decided to give it a try and although it lathered up nicely and seemed to clean my hair quite well, it also made my hair feel immediately dried out, and I followed up with an intensive conditioner to try and balance my hair back out. The next morning my hair was an awful sight, it was frizzy, tangled and unruly which gave my usually fine limp hair a bit of a birds nest appearance. I had to straighten it all over to get it under control and I did eventually achieve a smooth finish that had more volume than usual, but I am not encouraged to use this in my hair again.

This shower jelly is really nice to wash with as it is soft, smooth and smells great. I love using it because it's pretty and the fragrance really appeals to me, and I can recommend Lush's shower jellies as a fun addition to your usual bath time cleaning. Just keep it away from your hair!

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A novel and fun way to wash!

I love Lush and all the things that appear in the store. I love that their products contain natural ingredients and that they come with fun names and with lovely colours. Lush makes the process of pampering even more fun and interesting. One of their products which I hadn't ever tried however was a shower jelly. And so I purchased my first one... The Sweetie Pie.

What does the product do?The product has been cleansed first and foremost to cleanse the skin to leave you feeling fresh and clean. The jellies are said to be a cross between soap and shower gel. It contains Glycerin to hydrate the skin and Coconut Oil to nourish and condition the skin. The product also contains a skin softening seaweed and it comes with some glittering particles to make the product fun. It comes with a berry fragrance which has been created using a fruit infusion so it promises you'll come out of the shower smelling delicious too.

How do you use the product?The product is to be used in the shower or the bath. You simply tear a bit of the jelly off and then massage it all over the body in order to cleanse the skin. You can also scrub a bit all over a sponge until it's bubbly and use it that way. It isn't an easy process and the jelly will jump out of your hands as it's slippery so you have to concentrate on this one.

Packaging and PriceThe product comes contained within a clear plastic pot which has a black label around it which gives you some more information about the product. It also has a clear lid which again has a stick on it telling you some more about the product. The jelly will cost you around £3 for a 100 gram pot or you can buy a larger 250 gram pot. It can be bought from your local Lush store or from its online websites.

Aroma and AppearanceThis product should smell like a mixture of coconut and cherries according to the ingredients but it just smells more like blackcurrants to me. It is really fruity and completely delicious. You need to make sure you don't confuse it with real jelly. The product is a royal purple in colour and it has flecks on blue glitter throughout it. The product is almost moulded to the pot so if you tipped it upside down like a sandcastle, the jelly is in the same shape as the pot.

Application and PerformanceThe product has the same consistency as jelly so it very wobbly and quite slippery. This therefore make the product quite tricky to use and you don't want to drop the whole thing in your bath. To avoid this, I tear off a section and only take a little bit in one me. I take my piece between my damp hands and rub my hands together to make a bubbly foam and then rub my hands over my body. It definitely is a strange way to wash and it's hard work!

The product smells lovely however and the glittery pieces look lovely too. I think the glitter pieces are just there to make the product look nice because they don't come off on the skin which is a relief even though I love glitter. The product does leave me feeling quite clean and it leaves my skin a little bit softer. The smell lingers faintly on the skin for a while and it didn't cause me to experiences any dryness or discomfort.

Conclusion For me, this is more a novelty and fun bath product which is a little impractical for daily use. If you have time to spare, it is a fun way to wash with plenty of bubbles and a lovely scent. My skin was left cleansed and fresh but this product required too much effort for what is supposed to be a relaxing time. Children would probably love this and it would be a great way to get them washing and I will happily finish off my pot. I probably won't be buying another though!

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A product with great results which smells and looks wonderful!

I'm a huge fan of Lush, something I make no secret of hence my birthday and Christmas gifts contained a lot of Lush goodies one being the Sweetie Pie Shower Jelly. The jelly can be purchased from Lush stores and their website and comes in two sizes, the smaller 100g pot costing £3.10 and the bigger 240g pot costing £6.25

The product comes in a recycled clear plastic circular pot with screw on lid. The empty pot you're left with afterwards can be washed and taken back to a Lush store along with four others to claim a free fresh face mask so that's a nice extra! The pot has the usual black sticker on the lid and around the body showing the Lush logo and giving us the products name and description. This one is described as 'cherries, coconut, jelly and sparkles - this is a party in a pot.' Whilst I wouldn't go as far to say it was a 'party in a pot' it certainly is a very nice product! It's a vegan friendly product which hasn't been tested on animals - lovely.

Taking off the lid reveals wobbly, deep purple coloured jelly which has dark blue sparklers sprinkled throughout. It looks absolutely beautiful and smells even better. It's a got a lovely, fruity and juicy scent to it with the cherry being the prominent smell. It's lovely and sweet but I find it never becomes over bearing or sickly, I absolutely love it.

You can use the product frozen or chilled if you wish. Personally I just like to keep my shower jellies at room temperature and use them straight out of the pot. If you gently pull the sides of the jelly away from the pot it comes out very easily and still in one piece ready to use. It's a little thicker in consistency than edible jelly but that just makes it easier to work with when rubbing on your body, it still has the firm jelly like wobble to it which for some reason amuses me possibly more than it should! As I say, to use this I just pull the edges away from the pot, flip it upside down, give it a little shake and the jelly is released. I then apply to my skin and let it work its magic.

I like the 100g pots as I find this size of the product fits perfectly into the palm of my hand making it much easier to use. It's pretty easy to get a firm grip but keep in mind that when this gets wet it does get a little slippy so may escape from your hand! Fortunately it's not terrible, I use this fairly regularly and I've only ever had to chase it around my bath a couple of times, most of the time I have a hassle free use.

When applied to the wet skin is lathers up in creamy white suds. I tend to just rub this over a body part before popping it back in the pot and using my hand to work the lather around my skin to give it a good clean. A quick swipe of jelly along my leg is enough to then rub into my entire leg and out of my 100g pots I get a good ten or so uses before the jelly becomes quite small and a pain to use!

The first time I used a shower jelly from Lush I was concerned that it would be more of a gimmick than a good way to clean my skin but all of those fears have been removed now days. The jelly does a lovely job at cleaning my skin and making me feel refreshed and cleansed. The beautiful scent this has lingers on the body for a good couple of hours and a nice fruity body butter after washing really compliments this cherry scent and keeps it lasting longer and stronger. Not that you really need to apply body butter after using this, it has the added bonus of leaving the skin feeling really soft too!

All in all, an entirely recommended product from Lush. It's one of those I seem to buy every time I pop into a Lush store and definitely one of my favourite products of theirs (and that's a hard choice)!

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Lush shower jellies are not for me!

This Lush Sweetie Pie shower jelly was bought for me some time ago as a gift. I had never used any shower jelly from Lush before and so I wasn't sure what to expect, but because it was from Lush I had high expectations! I received mine in a little brown card box with a clear plastic bit on the front so you could see what it looked like inside. They have since changed it and it now comes in a plastic tub as shown in the image above. I am glad as one thing I hated about the cardboard box was that it was actually quite thin that after a while the jelly made it become damp and also I had to keep it away from water, which proved quite hard considering it is something you use when in the shower. I didn't have anything else I could keep the shower jelly in.

The scent of this sweetie pie jelly is supposed to be cherry and coconut, not something I would usually go for if I was buying this for myself. However, in my opinion it smelt more like blackberries than cherry and was very sweet, but not too sweet that it was sickly. It smells the same as Lush's comforter bubble bar, which I love, and so if you like the scent of that then you will like this shower jelly too.

Unfortunately, the scent was the only thing that I really liked about this product. As it is a jelly you can imagine what the texture of this is like. you have to tear the required amount of the jelly and then rub it into your skin, but I found this task quite difficult! The jelly would slip out of my hands easily and if in the shower then that's it, it disappears down the plughole! At least if using this in the bath I could quickly pick it back up again and use it. I also found it hard to use as the jelly like texture proved hard to smooth over, even if applying onto a sponge.

This shower jelly contains seaweed which is meant to soften your skin but unfortunately I cannot see any difference except for that my skin smells nicer. I would have to use up lots of the jelly to wash 0every part of me and I just end up giving up and using normal shower gel or soap after. I do still use this occasionally but it seems so much effort when in the shower that I only use it in the bath now.

I won't be buying this again as the only nice thing about this to me is its scent. I can't be bothered to 'fight' the jelly and would much rather use a Lush soap!

A 100g tub of this costs £2.95 and there are other shower jellies available if the scent of this one isn't for you, but I am guessing all of them will be hard to keep hold of when in the shower.

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washing with jelly!

Sweetie pie comes in a plastic sort of oval shaped tub which is see through, this is great because you can see the pretty colour of the jellies,It has a label on the lid and on the pot stating lush brand name, name of the jelly and some instructions with a brief product description. On the bottom is a picture of who made the jelly (which I assume who came up with this idea) the date it was made and when it expires, Mine had a year in date before It expired but mine is long gone now. The lid takes off the same was an any other plastic tub lid and it's really easy to put on and take off with ease.

This is really simple to use although I was confused as to how this was used when I first purchased on of these, you simply get a little bit of this and put in on your loofer, or cloth or just on your hands and rub it around your body. The shower jellies are literally like jelly as you can see from the picture above it even takes the shape of a small jelly this is just like a soap and you use it in the same way as any of cleaning item. Surprisingly this didn't turn into liquid it simply foams up still in it's jelly form and it does go really far so you only need to use a little bit at once because it foams and lathers up a lot. This has some form of glitter in the jelly but I was please when it didn't stick to my body,I think it's just to make the jelly more appealing, which it does.

This sweetie pie smells of Blackcurrant sweets, anything black currant like jelly babies or fruit pastels only the smell is a lot sweeter and stronger there are slight hints of cherry in this as well which is an added bonus of smelling of both. You can smell this as soon as you take the lid off it is really strong but it is a gorgeous scent. This does smell good enough to eat - but don't eat it! After washing the smell does linger on your body for a good few hours which is lovely when I got comments on how I smelt. This makes me feel really clean afterwards and really refreshed, My skin did feel a little softer than usual but that effect did wear off after a little while.

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Another innvoative, amazing product from LUSH

Today I am reviewing the LUSH sweetie pie shower jelly

Packaging

As LUSH hardly ever uses packaging there is rarely anything I can comment on with LUSH packaging. This shower jelly is packaged in a clear, recyclable plastic tub. It has a screw top lid and black labels. The tub is part of the offer - Bring back 5 clean LUSH pots and get a fresh face mask free !

Product

The product is a purple jelly with sparkles and blue, iridescent glitter in. It really is just like an actual jelly. Once again LUSH have succeeded in taking an ordinary shower gel and making it into something original,= and more eco friendly !!

The smell of this product is absolutely amazing ! It is described as cherry, cocnut and cassis scented. You can definitely smell the cassis / black current. I am terrible at describing smells but there is some underlying scents beneath the blackcurrent.

When using this jelly, you can just take a penny sized amount and that will suffice as it lathers up amazingly. The scent lingers on your body for quite a while and makes you smell very nice.

A ub of this is £2.95 ans this is great value as it is an amzing scent that lasts ages. I would highly recommend this product

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A lovely showering experience, especially if used with a shower puff. Smells gorgeous

After seeing this on the counter in a lush store I had to purchase it. The smell is gorgeous it's very fruity and sweet smelly. Personally it reminded me of black currant fruit pastilles in terms of the smell! You can purchase this from Lush in two sizes. The packaging is a clear plastic with a screw top lid. The product itself is a deep purple colour, smells lovely and is literally like jelly. At first I thought the product was quite pricey for a shower gel but I was took in by the novel idea of the jelly and the smell.

When using the product a part of it is ripped off and used. If you physically rub shower gel in your hands onto your body it will become difficult to use. It can easily slip out of your hands and down the drain! It can be quite difficult to rub it into a gel like consistency! But, if you rub it into a shower puff as you would a bar of soap it really lathers up. Without using a massive amount. To me it seems to lather up more than my regular shower gel. Ive found the product lasts a long time this way as its not all going down the drain so im happier about the price. The smell remains strong and fruity but doesn't stay very long or strongly on the skin. My skin always feel soft after use and the smell is so refreshing. After using all of the product keep the plastic and after returning 5 empty plastics from Lush you should be given a free face mask!

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an average product

I am not a huge fan of lush, when I walk past the shop I just smell a very overpowering mix of fragrances which basically puts me off venturing into the store. My friends however do not share this view so I have on occasion been dragged into lush with them, and when I did I spotted a variety of exciting looking wobbly jellies just asking to be investigated! I'm going to be honest, when I saw the jellies I just wanted to poke them to see how much they would wobble. I think they're a very novel idea and if I'm entirely honest I'm just a bit of a child and the jelly looked like it would almost be like a fun toy for the bath. I mentioned it to my boyfriend and that I particularly liked the 'sweetie pie' version and got some for my birthday.

===Packaging ===

This shower jelly comes packaged in a plastic tub which is available in 2 sizes - 100g priced at £2.95 or a larger 240g priced at £5.95. I personally have the 100g. The packaging is fairly simple but covered in writing. There is the usual lush logo, the weight of the product and some blurb about this being fruitier than dale winton! There is also instructions for use, an ingredients list and a little sticker telling you who has made the jelly and when you should use it by. This seems to have a huge shelf life if my sticker is correct - made on 23/11/10 and should be used by 23/01/12. Must be some interesting ingredients in this little purple jelly to make it last for that long! There is also a little sticker to say that this product is suitable for vegans and that the tub has been entirely recycled. Another thing to mention is that if you take back 5 clean lush pots then you can get a fresh face mask for free. The lid is screw on/screw off which I like as I feel the jelly is somehow a bit more secure in its pot because of this.

===the jelly===

This is incredibly wobbly as you would expect. It feels like a jelly that you would eat only perhaps a little more firm. It is purple in appearance with lots of little bits of glitter in. the main thing I like about this product is the smell - it smells absolutely amazing. It smells very fruity and very powerful but in a very satisfying kind of way. When I got this I could not wait to use it!! Having looked at instructions for use I learned this is not just a jelly to be used in the shower, it can also be used in the bath or even on your hair. It can also be chilled or frozen if desired, although this idea never appealed to me so I can't comment on its use in those states.

===jelly in the shower===

I opened the jar and tried to avoid getting any water in there as I tried to tear off a bit of the jelly. It was quite tricky to get a relatively small amount out - I didn't see the point in wasting lots. I tried to just rub the jelly onto my skin but this really had no effect, was very slippery and then went down the plug. Little bit disappointing. I tore off some more and this time put some onto a bath puff and lathered it up a bit. This seemed more effective because I could then lather it up even more on my skin. I found the smell was not as powerful once it had been lathered up a bit. I felt my skin was slightly moisturised afterwards but I was annoyed at how much of the jelly I had lost because it is so slippery!

===jelly in the bath===

I ripped off a larger chunk to put in the bath and filled it right up. At first the jelly made some bubbles, not the usual foamy bubble bath kind of bubbles but bubbles all the same. My bath smelt amazing. The jelly didn't entirely dissolve in the bath, in fact it barely dissolved at all and I was left with a partiall bubble bath with fairly big chunks of jelly in. Again as with the shower I did feel my skin had been somewhat moisturised but I was very disappointed to notice that the bubbles barely lasted for 10 minutes. I know that this product is primarily for use in the shower but I tend to find that shower products work just as well in the bath.

===jelly as shampoo===

This was fairly interesting and I almost felt that I was doing something wrong by putting something that reminded me of soap onto my hair. I have to say that it lathered up pretty well and smelt amazing but I don't think it did anything for my hair. If anything I felt it tangled my hair a bit and I felt the need to completely shampoo and condition my hair all over again using more normal products.

===What's in the jelly?===

The main fragrance of this jelly is cherry, coconut and cassis which give it that lovely fruity smell. I was always under the impression that lush used lots of natural ingredients but when I consolidated the lush website I was surprised to see how many artificial ingredients are used in this jelly. There are some lovely looking natural ingredients like glycerine which is well known for being very moisturising, along with some other ingredients that seem to be related to the fragrance. In the unnatural ingredients are artificial colours and parabens which according to articles found through Google seem to have become linked with some health problems although I am clearly no doctor and can't really comment on this. Personally these artificial ingredients don't bother me as many non artificial products I have used just don't perform as well as the others.

===overall impression of the jelly===

I think I was slightly disappointed with this jelly. It is a very novel product and not one that I use on a day to day basis. The smell disappears disappointingly quickly and in the bath the lack of bubbles and how quickly they disappear did not live up to my expectations. The jelly felt horrible on my hair and I wouldn't recommend using it this way to anyone. I was also really annoyed at how easily the jelly slips out of your hand and down the plughole! Overall I would say that this jelly is merely an average product and I'm not entirely sure I would purchase again as I just think that there are far better products out there.

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I love it

This stuff is amazing! I've been using it for a few months now and can't reccomend it highly enough. It is reasonably cheap at £2.95 for a 100 gram tub or £5.95 for a 240 gram tub which in my opinion is great value as you can chop it into chunks to get your money's worth and you literally only need a tiny amount to get lots of fragrance and it lathers and froths up loads from even the smallest piece.

The jelly comes in a plastic Lush pot which is transparent. The tub has a large black label on it which has the product name, the Lush logo and a brief product description explaining what the product contains etc. It also has a cute sticker on it which has the use by date on it (mine is one year from the date it was made) and the name and a picture of who made your pot of jelly. The lid is simple to remove and put back on. The packaging is overall minimalistic and definetly unisex however i'm not really sure many men would enjoy this due to sweet, feminine sort of smell.

The product actually looks like a real jelly but is much more tough and rubbery. It's actually quite fun to play with! It is a deep shade of purple in colour and it has tiny bits of purple and blue sparkly glitter in it which is really pretty but the glitter doesn't stick on my skin at all in the bath which is good. You can freeze this or just put it in the fridge to chill it. I have freezed mine before and it was fine, and as it made the jelly cold it was really nice and refreshing.

Despite it been called a shower jelly, you don't have to strictly use it in the shower and I have used it in the bath several times and it has the same effect. To use the product, you simply get your tub of jelly and cut a chunk off of it. Then get your chunk of jelly, wet it slightly and then put it on a loofah, your hands or exfoliating gloves and rub it into your body. It melts and forms into a thick lather which is so nice. I wouldn't really reccomend using this with your hands because it is quite slippery so can slip down the drain in the shower but obviously if you are in the bath this won't particullary matter as you will have the plug in lol.

It smells gorgeous and the smell lingers. It is definetly quite a long lasting smell and i've had people comment that I smelt nice before and I was only wearing deodrant but had used this in the shower before getting dressed. It smells like blackcurrent jellybabies (but sweeter!) with a cherry and coconut undertone. It smells very similar to the comforter bubble bar which I love. It makes me feel really clean afterwards and also makes my skin feel nice and soft and it leaves me feeling refreshed and uplifted. Despite been so strong smelling it wasn't overpowering or sickly sweet like you would imagine it would from sniffing it in the pot. It also didn't irritate or dry out my skin which is good as I have very dry and sensetive skin. Lush buy all of there ingredients from suppliers who do not test on animals so it is safe for vegans and vegeterians to use. Overall a good quality, effective and good value product. Reccomended!

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A jelly soap that smells of fruity sweetness

Lush ' Sweetie Pie'

Jelly in the bath?

I had seen these jellies in Lush before and never been tempted to try them until I was given a sample of 'Joy of Jelly' many weeks ago now. I had previously thought that they were gimmicky and would melt in the bath water and all that I would be left with was gloop. Like all Lush products they are not cheap and for 100g you will pay £2.95 for this one or you can get a bigger tub of 240g and pay £5.95 so you can see why I wasn't going to buy these in case they might just gloop down my plughole so while I was in Lush a few months back buying some other bits of solid shampoo for my holiday I asked the lovely man serving me about these jellies and what they were for. Needless to say I came away with a sample for me to try. That was my first and it was 'Joy of Jelly', I loved it and have since been given a 'Whoosh' bought an 'Iced Wine' one and finally asked my nice man for a sample of 'Sweetie Pie' last time I was in just to complete the set.

Samples!!

I got quite a big sample of this as you can see in the photo, it must be almost a third of a small jar and what's more it came in a small black pots, the sort you wash out and take back to get a free face pack so I am ahead already as I now have 4 pots towards my next free face pack.

This one called 'Sweetie Pie' smells just like a black Rowntree's fruit pastel and was very strongly blackcurrant and cherry scented. This is the last of the regular jellies and may be one I won't buy again. Although it is a lovely fresh light fruity scent I prefer the more woody and exotic 'Joy of Jelly' if I had to choose just one. This jelly is probably the one that smells strongest when you are in the shop and it really does smell like a giant jelly sweet.

The nice thing about Lush sample is that you don't just get enough for one use , you get a decent amount and I think the amount of jelly I have about 35g so well over a quarter of a 100g pot so worth about 80p I guess so a pretty generous sample.

My experience:I was quite excited about trying my latest sample so I used it in my bath that evening. I have several ways of using these jellies and with smaller pieces like this I just use the whole piece like a bit of slithery soap to wash myself all over. You can also break a piece off the jelly lump and use that to wipe all over your body creating a luscious lather that smells fruity. I had originally thought the lump would sort of dissolve quickly as I lathered myself with it but it didn't. It is really like a very floppy bar of soap. I have now chosen not to break a piece off but to use the entire squiggly lump as soap and lather it all over my body; I then leave it for a few moments so that the scent soaks into my skin before rinsing it off.

It does feel sort of strange and floppy which takes some getting used to but it is much nicer that when I first use a new Lush soap as they are often quite hard at the edges and take some using to make them nice and rounded so I can rub them on my body comfortably. This feels so soft and gentle but you have to be careful to hold your hand cupped around it as it does try to slip out as you use it. If it does make a bid for escape then you have to move two hands slowly round it and gently let the water out of your scooped hands until you have the escapee captured. If you try to just grab it it slips away and you can spend ages chasing it around the bath or shower floor.

The Scent:

The smell is sweetly fruity with a hint of citrus freshness. The jelly is blackcurrant purple just exactly like a blackcurrant fruit jelly looks the sort that you can eat. In fact it smells like a jelly you could eat so if you have children who like jelly then don't leave this around where they could find it as they might be tempted. It reminds me of a black Rowntree's fruit pastille from the packs which my father used to bring us children sometimes as a treat. .

What's in this jelly then?

The good things are :

Coconut infusion which is good for skin and known for its moiturising qualities.

The jelly is made from carrageenan extract which is a natural and nutritious seaweed gel full of vitamins and minerals and so this is meant to condition skin and also soften hair. I have to say my skin did feel wonderfully pampered after using this so tap marks for that Lush.

Most of the ingredients seem to be good at calming so this would be a great one for the bedtime bath or to use if you are feeling a bit stressed.

Not so good:We still have the methylparabens and propylparabens which are not so great and are questionable ingredients that help give lather.

There are also colours and other bits and pieces but I won't go on about those and if you are really concerned about this sort of thing I am sure that you are more than capable of investigating the contents yourself.

Is it just a strange sort of soap then?

Well no, as with many Lush products this has multiple uses. Obviously you can use it as it is in its wobbly form as a soft and gentle soap with a lovely fruity scent.

Secondly you can use it as a shampoo and the seaweed gel is supposed to help make your hair soft and of course the smell will stay in your hair for ages. I did try it and found it was hard to keep hold of the gloopy mass but it did feel nice and lathered up well. Obviously the smell is a bit diluted depending on the conditioner you use after it, what a shame they don't make a conditioner with the same scent. My hair was not noticeable soft but my hair is quite course so really never actually feels soft so maybe I am not a good head of hair to test this on.

Thirdly you can put this in the fridge and use it as a cool soap or shampoo when it is really hot outside. You can also take it one stage further and put it in the freezer so then you have a hard very cold soap or shampoo which would be nice in a hot climate but so far I haven't been tempted. I think you would have to freeze it in a rounded container so that it had rounded edges otherwise it could be a bit sharp when using it on your body.

The idea behind freezing is that you can lather your body up with a cold soap and rinse off with hot water a bit like a Turkish bath or sauna experience, hot then cold then hot. I'm not a fan of this hot cold experience and when I use a sauna I never jump back into the pool or have a cold shower as it is not my idea of a pampering at all!

So will you buy this again?Well I am certainly impressed with this and the other jellies I have tried and would certainly recommend them all. Despite having my drawers crammed with Lush soaps and also handmade soaps made by a friend of mine in Australia I still went and bought 'The Joy of Jelly' after using my sample, I have also been given a huge 'Whoosh' pot and bought a small 'Iced Wine' pot so I'm not sure that I really need to buy a full pot of this one too. Indeed it should be a long time before I need to buy any more.

I have now tried all of the other jellies that Lush regularly sell and one of the seasonal ones. I am very impressed with this one and love the fruitiness of the scent. It is quite a nostalgic smell, reminds me of Ribena and jellies at children's birthday parties.

Initially I was not sure what to expect and really had thought they were one of Lush's gimmicky and rather silly products but these jellies are just great. This comforting fruity Ribena smelling one is perfect for a calming bath and it smells lovely in my view. I probably won't rush to buy this one just yet as i do have rather a large supply but I do really think it is a lovely fruity, comforting way to get clean and chill out at the same time.

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Shower jelly that's good enough to eat

This jelly is good enough to eat!!I am an absolute lush addict and as I expected, I wasn't disappointed with this jelly. It really does look like jelly that you eat, only glittery. The smell is gorgeous, a lovely blackcurrant fruity smell. I comes in two sizes, a 100g pot for £2.85 or a 240g pot for £5.70. I would recommend buying the bigger pot as you'll definitely be wanting more, although the smaller option is an advantage for anyone who is unsure and doesn't want to waste too much money. The pots are part of the lush offer of "bring back 5 clean Lush pots and get a Fresh Face Mask free" which is both environmentally friendly and a great reward for loyal customers.The jelly claims to "leave your skin smelling tropical and feeling fabulously softened". I haven't noticed a massive difference in the softness of my skin but the smell is certainly fabulous.At first it is quite tricky to use. It says it is suitable for the bath or shower but when I first started to use it I would spend ages chasing it around the bath or dropping it on the floor in the shower but after a while I got used to it. You only need a small amount and as soon as it gets wet it lathers really well. This means that the pot lasts for ages so it is really good value for money.I love this product. I always have a large pot in my bathroom!!

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a great product if you don't mind playing with the smell a bit

I tried the Whoosh shower jelly from Lush a while ago and loved it, so when I last went into the store I headed towards the stand for the shower jellies. This time I was attracted to the Sweetie Pie jelly. I'll be honest, I chose it because it has added sparkles and was purple, not because of the scent or anything else. That isn't to say I don't like the scent - I do but more on that later.

Packaging~~~~~~~

This jelly comes in a clear plastic pot with a lid that twists open. Through the pot you can see the dark purple jelly which has multi-coloured sparkles in it. The label stuck to the top of the lid tells me that this is Lush's Sweetie Pie shower gel to be used in either the bath or shower. It tells me that it's scented with cherry, coconut and cassis.

The label on the side again gives me the name of the product and the ingredients. It also tells me that if I bring back five of these jars I can get a complimentary fresh face mask.

Use~~~

After much faffing around with other jellies I have finally got their use down to a fine art! It does take some practice though. I either hold the whole thing in my hand and rub it over my skin or break a bit off and use it with a shower scrunchie. Which method I use tends to depend on which jelly I'm using but for the sake of this review I shall explain both.

Firstly the lid, despite the lack of apparent grip, is easy to twist open and closed no matter how wet or slippery my hands are and the smell is immediately obvious. I would say that it mainly smells of Cassis with an undercurrent of cherries and blackcurrants; the coconut isn't noticeable at all. I like fruity scents and sweet scents but this is bordering on being too sweet even for me. I hoped it would fade in use though so we'll see..

A shower scrunchie:

To use this method I just break a small bit off and crush it onto a scrunchie. Breaking a part off isn't as easy as it sounds so you might want to bring something to help with this. I use an old razor blade packet to almost cut it off.

A part about the size of a two pound coin is enough to do about half my body. It lathers up well and the smell really is very strong. The cherry and blackcurrant smell comes through stronger as it lathers up and begins to overpower the Cassis but it does remain almost sickly sweet.

However as I said at the beginning part of the reason I chose this is because of the sparkle it has. Unfortunately using this method all the coloured sparkles are lost in the scrunchie and none transfer onto me.

Rinsing off my body proves easy, just rinse it off and it leaves no residue. There's just a softness to my skin. Rinsing it out the shower scrunchie however isn't quite so easy - it works its way right into the middle of it and takes a couple of minutes to rinse out.

Rubbing it directly onto my skin:

I prefer this method which is unusual for me; I usually favour scrunchies.

I hold the whole jelly into my hand (this is trickier with the smaller ones but much easier with the larger size) and just rub it over my body. I actually use very little each time using this method but it spreads easily across my skin leaving what feels like a very moisturising layer and best of all - leaving behind the sparkles.

Again it rinses off easily. The layer I described above is rinsed off with the jelly but some sparkles are left on.

The smell however is sickly sweet when done like this and much as I do like sweet scents this is far too sweet for me.

Results ~~~~

The scent lingered on my skin all day. As I said above when used without a scrunchie the smell is far too sweet but I counter this by using complementary scents just to tone it down a bit. The scent is strong enough not to be overpowered but blends nicely and is toned down by whatever else I use. When I use it with a scrunchie the sweetness isn't quite so strong; it smells like a summer fruit squash or jelly babies. For those of you who prefer sweeter scents I think this would suit quite well, if you don't like your perfume sweet then the technique I talked about above would work.

My skin is left incredibly soft and moisturised, I do still need to use moisturiser on top of this but there is a noticeable difference compared to other shower gels. It feels almost as if I'd given myself a mini moisturising session in the bath with the results being that my skin is both softer and smoother and this lasts all day. These benefits are enhanced however if you use the scrunchie with it because of the extra bit of exfoliation the scrunchie itself provides.

If I pat dry as opposed to rub with the towel then the sparkles last at least a couple of hours; however rubbing myself dry just rubs off the sparkles too.

Other Information~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As with all Lush products none of the ingredients have been tested on animals. It is also suitable for vegans.

Pricing, Availability, Recommendations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Being a Lush product it is only available from Lush but can be bought online and in-store. It costs £2.85 for a 100g jar or £5.70 for a 240g jar.

I would recommend this to those of you who like sweeter smells or who like that extra bit of sparkle; for the rest of you though I think there are other jellies that would suit you better but overall this is a great product that works wonders with my skin.

It looses a dooyoo star because it really is overly sweet for me but otherwise I can't fault it.